Southwark: Mental health clinic threatened with closure

Supporters of a mental health clinic threatened with closure fear a consultation into its future will be a sham after hearing the manager will be moved - reports ICSouthLondon.

The Felix Post Unit at the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill faces the axe and a consultation is due to start in August.

But this week, campaigners learnt its manager of 11 years is to be moved to another job.

A source close to the clinic said: "She would be out by the end of the month. We all feel that they are attacking the service by stealth.

"They are taking out its very strong leader before the consultation begins."

The South London Press has been told the manager is now looking into launching a complaint through her union.

Lois Austin, from the Keep Our NHS Public campaign, said: "This consultation is going to be a sham. They are winding the clinic down so that when it comes to the consultation they can say it's not really operating and use that as an excuse to close it."

Tony Farsky, a former patient at the clinic and campaigner through the Southwark Pensioners' Action Group,said: "They are effectively closing the place, it is despicable.

"The staff there are very dedicated to their jobs and this is no way to treat them."

The South London Press put the claims to the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust which refused to deny the manager was being moved.

In a statement, it said: "We do not discuss routine, individual staffing issues with the media. However, it is not uncommon for staff to be offered secondment opportunities elsewhere within the trust."

The news comes in the same week that campaigners learnt that Simon Hughes, MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, plans to present a petition in Parliament on cuts at the Maudsley before the end of the month.

The petition, which now has more than 5,000 signatures, calls for the new Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, to look again at the decision made by his predecessor, Patricia Hewitt, allowing the Maudsley Hospital's 24-hour emergency clinic to close.